Sport columnist

Having talked to Shane Flanagan, and having seen six months' worth of text messages between James Hird and Stephen Dank, emphasises why the Sharks coach should never have been stood down in the first place. A weak Cronulla board buckled in the face of heat from the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and some sections of the media. The standing down of Flanagan is in complete contrast to what Hird is experiencing at the moment.

Flanagan said from day one he knew nothing of the Sharks' activities in their high-performance unit. That was left to Trent Elkin and Dank, with ''the Gazelle'', Darren Hibbert, there or thereabouts. Dank, Elkin and Hibbert all say they have acted appropriately. Flanagan is the only high-profile Shark to have been penalised so far.

Which brings us to Hird and Essendon. Hird has to front up to ASADA on Tuesday. He said from the outset that he was in shock to even be fronting a media conference relating to an inquiry into Essendon's practices.

That may well be the case, given that Dank is confident that everything he did, with Essendon's permission and full support, was appropriate. I have been through text message after text message between Dank and Essendon and make no mistake that Hird was more than just aware of what Dank was doing - he was a fan of it and a fan of the results.

Advertisement

At this point, I have been asked to hold fire on the exact details of the contents of the messages but they are detailed in the extreme, with names of players littered throughout the exchanges.

There are also numerous mentions of supplements and processes, which indicates that Hird will have to lay it all bare for ASADA when they meet.

Hird has had suggestions from AFL boss Andrew Demetriou that he should consider standing down. From afar, it appears that he has board support and club support not to follow what Demetriou wants.

Where was that kind of support for Flanagan, who was left to watch from afar as his club floundered? There are some in Melbourne who don't want to believe that these text messages are real. I sat with Dank and went through his phone over a cup of coffee and saw every text message from Hird to him after I had put it to him that the messages could have been falsified.

The next area of interest around Hird will be his statement that he only took injections twice to benefit himself. That is a statement worth remembering and one that may land him in trouble down the track when it comes to his credibility in this matter.

Twitter account is fake

Stephen Dank is very scientific in everything he does but when it comes to social media that's not his thing. Someone has set up a fake Steve Dank Twitter account and whilst there's been no harmful messages on there yet you can expect Dank's lawyers to get involved if that changes. For the record, Dank is not on Twitter.

Pioneer remembered

If he wasn't doing it tough enough, Stephen Dank is mourning the death of one of his scientific greats, Sir Robert Edwards. Dank called Edwards a ''true scientist of the highest order'', a ''genius'' and ''a man whose work taught me so much''. ''I have read all his work intimately,'' Dank said. ''[He was] a pioneer who had several battles with authority on his work and many times almost quit given the battles he faced. I can relate to this with what I am facing.''

Green jacket, red faces

Debate is already raging about the greatest Australian sporting moment. As someone who watched Greg Norman crumble so many times in the wee hours of the morning, it's hard for me to go past Adam Scott winning the Masters. Adding to his brilliance was his attitude after the victory. So classy. Then there's the rise and rise of Jason Day, who looks to have several green jackets in him.

The downside - there always has to be one - is that Steve Williams was on his bag and almost ruined Scott's celebrations. And then there's the long putter. But that's a story for another day.

Then there was the Channel Ten coverage, in which Greg Rust - a motor sport commentator - and former golfer Paul Gow were for some reason talking over the CBS coverage at the most vital of times. All due respect to Gow, but we wanted to hear from the best golf commentary team in the world who were actually at the event not from a couple of Aussies who were watching it in a studio in Sydney. It was painful.

Danny Weidler is a Channel Nine reporter

31 comments so far

Actually, Danny, there doesn't always have to be a negative to a story - simply a media perspective. Why not let Scott's reaction to Williams speak for itself - gratitude and respect. Stop angling to take a dig at someone.

Commenter

GP

Location

Sydney

Date and time

April 16, 2013, 4:53AM

Excellent article danni .....Paul gow is an excellent commentator and I enjoy listening to him z

Commenter

Dr Paul

Date and time

April 16, 2013, 5:30AM

Well said Danny!!!

Where was the Leadership from the Cronulla Board or the NRL Commission for people entitled to the presumption of innocent until proven guilty.I suggest that the NRL Commission decided they could get a lot more money by having an NRL Team in Perth.

I also suggest they privately decided to make the Sharks relocate whether they wanted to or not.For the record I think they should relocate to Perth in their best intetests and that of making the NRL a Truly National Rugby League.However andmore importantly Cronulla don't and it's their Club.

However because of their long-term lack of leadership in our Code we no longer have a legitimate Reserve Grade Competition.No offence to the QLD Cup or the NSW Cup...love them both and watch them both every week.

The NRL would need to field TWO extra Teams in order to flog-off the media rights to the highest bidder and unfortunately we don't have the depth in this competition to pull an additional 60-80 First-Graders out of the proverbial hat(we could bring them back from The Pommy Super League but that'd be too easy and make too much sense...hmmmm???).

I believe there's a Hell of a lot more to this story than meets the eye and a Hell of a lot more than we as the general public will ever know about.Something stinks and as they say...a fish rots from the head down not the tail up!!!

Commenter

Manon DeEdge

Date and time

April 16, 2013, 5:57AM

If the head coach of an organisation does not know what is happening in his high performance unit then he should be stood down for simple mismanagement. To try and defend a coach who does not know what is happening to his squad on team premises is pretty difficult.

To hide what was going on from the coach and the board would have taken a conspiracy between the players and the other team coaches/managers/administrators involved.

He either knew or should have known. Cronulla did the right thing.

Commenter

Rossco

Location

up north

Date and time

April 16, 2013, 2:49PM

@Rossco... I recall an even higher profile coach caught up in an even bigger and more black and white cheating scandal than this one. His reaction to not knowing how his blantantly obvious over the cap team, miraculously fit under the cap year after year, went unpunished. He said he had no idea about anything and no input into anything... which of course is a load of bull. Then on top of that he had the hide to come out and ask for the premierships back because they deserved them. I think he knew more about the cheating going on at his club (which was also proven not unsubstantiated like this dribble) than Flanno did, yet the punishements are polar opposites. So which is it?

Commenter

Snitz

Date and time

April 16, 2013, 5:36PM

Adam Scott's win is right up there. Forget about some horse winning 25 (mostly carefully selected) races in a row - not a lot of people care about that despite the over the top media coverage - winning the Holy Grail of sport for Australians (the US Masters) for the first time will always be remembered as one of our greatest sporting achievements.

And I agree with you Danny about channel 10's telecast. While I was grateful the golf was shown on free to air, they should have stuck to the CBS coverage. Particularly frustrating was that channel 10 had ads showing when Scott and Cabrera hit their tee shots on the 2nd playoff hole. Unbelievable!

Commenter

Jimmy

Location

NSw

Date and time

April 16, 2013, 6:06AM

Try watching their formula one coverage. Its worse.

The only person who should be allowed to speak is alan jones. And only in between SKYsports ads.

Channel 10 take ads at the worst time. They are solely committed to commericial revenue without trying to harmonise it with the flow of sport.

God help us if they get the cricket.

Commenter

nick

Date and time

April 16, 2013, 4:10PM

Ageed... I couldn't care less if Black Caviar ended up in a European Lasagne tin.

Commenter

Snitz

Date and time

April 16, 2013, 5:37PM

while i agree about the overrated coverage of a horse, i also think calling the US Masters the Holy Grail of sport is utterly over the top and just as sensationalist. its a fantastic achievement. but the pinnacle it is far from. these guys in golf pants don't even raise a sweat and generally its overrated also. but Adam Scott appears a good bloke and paid respect to Greg Norman, he's all class.

Commenter

Ian

Date and time

April 17, 2013, 8:53AM

Danny, I think if the Management Team that has now been put into place at The Sharks, was there in February ASADA would not have got the early free kicks. This gave ASADA momentum at that club and put the players at a disadvantage in defending themselves. In relation to James Hird he is better served not making any comments until he knows what he is up against. Back to The Sharks they are still competitive but the calls are now going against them and this is season is in the balance.